A Murder in Reno

Here, at the second and, supposedly, last day of exile Upstairs, due to the final day of Painting by Ducknik in the The Prose, Poetry and Inexcusable Doggerel Space at The Great Plotnik World Headquarters and Meatball Kitchen, The Great Plotnik was going to enter some neat photos of his garden, but instead: he ponders.

Yesterday, most of his loyal readers probably glanced at an article in the paper about some guy in Reno who tried to kill a judge and now they're after him. Not something you'd read too closely. Oh, yeah, he also killed his wife, first. And in today's paper there are testimonials written by members of the fugitive's family, talking about how sweet a guy he had always been.

Guess what? The dead wife was the sister of The Great PunkyDunky's dear friend C. C. always used to talk gingerly of his brother-in-law -- said he was worth zillions but was a nasty character. He wondered why his sister stayed married to him. Last year, she filed for divorce. Now, she's dead. And the papers are writing about what a nice man the husband was -- and anyway, the judge that he shot is going to recover, so it's OK. Not a word about the sister.

C. has been working in India. He and his wife are back home in Reno now. It looks like they are about to become parents of his sister's 7-year-old daughter.

So here's how fast things can change: this little girl had two parents until the day before yesterday, and now she has none. It's such a common story we don't even notice it in the news. A woman was murdered but the only item that is newsworthy is that the judge is doing better.

The garden photos will have to wait.